Putting on the Reich: An Axis Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe AAR

[Drakken]

Axis Turn 2: Warschau... auslöschen.

Message from Oberkommando der Wehrmacht: The Fuhrer wants to cut the head of the Polish chicken to end the war in a speedy manner. Ignore all pocketed troops and concentrate on Warsaw at all costs.

The Luftwaffe first brings hell from above with all available Tactical and Medium bombers to flatten Warsaw, before Von Kuchler's 3rd Army, supported by XXI and Wodrig's Corps, detaches from the surrounded Modlin Army and slice intead east behind the Vistula. After brushing aside the lone Narew Corp in the way with its ZOC, 3rd Army slides in and begins a devastating assault of the city from the North.

By the end of this sickle stroke operation in their rear, Warsaw is all but empty - We need only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down! 



Alas, all Von Kuchler's forces are spent. Orders are given to Von Rundstedt's 4th Panzer and XIII Corp to charge full speed ahead and kick in the door at once. The little Polish Corp in the way does not put a desperate fight: After its remnants are pushed inside the Capital by both Infantry and Panzers, 4th Panzer finishes it out and seizes the city.

Warsaw is now in ruins. All that remains now is clearing those pockets and seizing as much territory east before Stalin wakes up. 14th Army destroys 10th Mechanized Corps and seizes Krakow,  while 10th Army annihilates the Silesian defences in Gletwitz, avenging our martyrs lost in the despicable and cowardly attack by the Poles on our radio station. The Polish Carpathian Army being solidly caught in a pincer bind, weakened and demoralized, the Slovakian troops are ordered to probe eastward. Finding Przemysl Lemberg empty of any garrison, the city is now back into Austro-German hands.

Unless the Polish remnants decide to stubbornly refuse to surrender and die instead (chances are very low. Usually, taking Warsaw should suffice to make them surrender), this should be the formal end of our military operations in Poland. However, the Reds have not made their move... yet.



Meanwhile, in France... all quiet on the Western Front. Not a single poilu is risking going for a walk through the Siegfried line, even if the Saar is wide open in front of them. Keep that picture in memory... it will barely change until Winter to Spring 1940.



In the Atlantic, all my u-boat fleets and the Deutchland-class heavy cruiser are in place, raiding the convoy lines of the enemy. Both the normal lines from Canada and Britain's imperial colonies are covered by at least one raider. This will force the British to commit significant naval resources to hunt them down.



No Infantry unit is in the pipeline in the future. I will need to purchase some very soon. However, as mentioned on last turn, I purchase 1st Panzer (Tank) here.

I also purchase 386th Security Unit (Garrison). The reason why I buy the latter is because I must keep 2 units within 10 hexes of Warsaw, otherwise the USSR's mobilization will steadily increase. 100%, Stalin immediately declares war. At 80%, the clock starts ticking towards an unavoidable declaration of war. I do not want to commit a whole Corp to hold that hex, ehre it could be used elsewhere, so this second Garrison will keep looking out on the Soviet border.



Finally, nothing much in Italy. No spending of MPP, and I move the Italian army units south closer to the Napolitan ports. In time, they will all go in Libya to seize Egypt and start reconstituting the Roman Empire.

I cannot use Force March on HQs, so it moves slow. But since I have all the time needed until Italy joins the war, I might as well move them like this. Transports cost MPPs to use as an Action... and Italy gets very few MPPs at start. So no wasting MPPs when there are no emergencies.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

might put it on my wishlist then

[Tamas]

Yeah, make sure you keep a flow of new unit production going Drakken. Russia is dark and full of terrors.

[Drakken]

Allies Turn 2: The Fourth (and Final) Partition of Poland





Molotov is putting pressure on Hitler to respect our Non-Accession Pact of this August, meaning ceding back Lemberg and those Polish territories that would be included in the Soviet zone in Eastern Poland. In exchange, We will receive a decent tribute monthly compensation of 25 MPPs if we accept. Saying No means that the whole of Poland is up for grabs, but this would massively piss off the Soviets - and help precipitate an early war with Russia.



I have no intention of going to war with Russia anytime soon ... well, not before 1941. So I'll say Yes.

HOWEVER, I have something plan in mind which will throw to the usual WWII narrative in a spin. Let's say this: no honor among thieves. I do not intend to let Russia run around and grab everything in th East. But more on that next turn.



We receive over 300 MPPs in Plunder from the Poles, plus their Production bases that will supplement my war effort towards the West. France and Britain are shocked by Poland disappearing so quickly from the surface of the Earth, rather than pinning my troops in the East while they do whatever they had in plan not to do. This hurts France's National Morale, and France reinforces their units on the Maginot line while the BEF arrives on French soil in reinforcement.



Politically, massive tears are shed by the proto-SJWs in the West about the supposed "betrayal" of Stalin invading Poland (YOU DON'T SAY?!). British Communist Leader Harry Pollitt steps down in reaction, while there is widespread dismay among the Bolshevik-lovers in France: politicans, intellectuals, and workers unions alike. Will those minions follow Stalin's bid? Will the weak French government go so far as to strike back?



Nothing much from the Allies within my FOW. All that's important for me is that none of my raiders were found by the British in the Atlantic. Again this turn, they free to wreak havoc on Britain's so-called lifelines unmolested.



This is good: Since the beginning of the war, more then half of Britain's MPPs have been lost thanks to the pressure of my U-boats. Right now even Italy produces more net MPPs than Britain! There is no way the British will be withstanding this for long without sending all their DDs to fight in the Atlantic, so each turn of maintained pressure means a net win for me.



Now that Poland is done with, time to set our eyes on France...

[Valmy]

Sure you can beat up on a few Poles but can you overcome the genius of the legend that is Maurice Gamelin?

[grumbler]

Those are some seriously overpowered U-boats!  I think it was March of 1940 before the Germans were able to get a ninth U-boat continually on patrol.

[Drakken]

Those are some seriously overpowered U-boats!  I think it was March of 1940 before the Germans were able to get a ninth U-boat continually on patrol.

Thankfully for the Allies, I will not able to sustain that pressure for long for various reasons in-game:

a) British, French, and Canadian DDs will try to find me. The game reports possible sightings with a '?' on the map, representing 'SOS from attacked shippings'. When they do find me eventually, they will either damage me or force me to dive and go in Silent mode.

b) Because of the above, I would be foolish to stay immobile. So for survival I need to move my units each turn. Obviously following the lines will get me to hit an enemy DD patrol face to face, so it is recommended to get off the line for a turn, then go somewhere else along the line. This means, one turn without that u-boat raising.

c) All naval units, including u-boats, have a supply rating that decreases with each attack or action. The lower the supply, the less effective the u-boat gets.

d) Due to range limitations, U-boats take several turns to return to base in Germany to repair or resupply. It means that there will be happenstances that all my u-boats will be off the hunt.

e) There is a Hard limit of the amount of units I can field, submarines included. I will never be able to have more than a dozen of u-boats on the map if I really decide to spend my MPPs to purchase all of them.

I believe this balances out the early war in the Atlantic. This is also why getting the pen in Saint-Nazaire becomes so important, plus the various supply bases made available by neutral Spain after the fall of France.

[Drakken]

Sure you can beat up on a few Poles but can you overcome the genius of the legend that is Maurice Gamelin?

Against the AI? Easily. 

This, however, does make me reflect on how I would play France in PBEM. In hindsight the 'sickle stroke' plan is so obvious, I would be an idiot to jump into Belgium with my crack troops and not defend the Ardennes. I expect my Languish opponent would know that. So how would an invasion of France play out? Would it mean a replay of the Schlieffen plan? Or the Axis going through Switzerland instead?

Perhaps, also, I would be more proactive rather than sit and wait for Poland to get gobbled and see my Nationale Morale plummet. Perhaps investing chits to get Belgium to join the Allies before May 1940 would be worthwhile, but that costs MPPs and the results are random. Raids over the cost of Germany, maybe? Hell, even perhaps flat out declaring war to Luxembourg and Belgium might be considered. In the end, France needs to get some room to bypass the Siegfried line if it wants to interfere with Germany.

[Berkut]

Yeah, I played out the Axis campaign a bit, and then restarted once I made enough critical errors (like getting a Panzer Corp sunk on the way to North Africa).

The only major issue I have with the game is that inter-turn interface kind of sucks. It takes a really long time, and there are important events that pop up at odd moments.

[Drakken]

Yeah, I played out the Axis campaign a bit, and then restarted once I made enough critical errors (like getting a Panzer Corp sunk on the way to North Africa).

Why send a German Panzer unit in NA? Axis gets the Afrika Corps through a Decision event.

Any serious campaign in NA requires the utter destruction of Malta so that you have advanced cover from Sicily to Tripoli.

[Berkut]

I didn't know at the time that Afrika Corps would just be magically built IN Africa!

[Drakken]

I didn't know at the time that Afrika Corps would just be magically built IN Africa!

Yeah, I find that iffy too. The Axis player does not need German troops magically appearing in the desert. As in real life, they should be diverting troops, under their Hard Limit, from going to Russia to do so.

I'd be fine with a Free HQ with Rommel instead, though.

[Drakken]

Axis Turn 3: Go west, young men!

Now that the land of the Martis has been eradicated from the surface of the planet, we must now plan how we'll deal with our enemies in the West. But first, let us establish our current order of battle on the ground in the East :

HQs = 3 Units - 2 x Rating 6 (Von Kuchler, Von Bock), 1 x Rating 7 (Von Rundstedt)
Armies = 5
Corps = 10 + 1 Slovakian
Tanks = 2
Fighters = 3
Tactical Bombers = 2
Medium Bombers = 1
Paratroops = 1

For the incoming offensive on France, we will have no choice but to go through Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg. There is just not enough room to do otherwise. Considering what is already in the pipeline OKW planners have come with the following mimimum distributions needed to wage a successful campaign against the Allies:

Netherlands = 2 Armies, 3 Corps, 1 Tank, 1 Medium, 1 Fighter, 1 Paratroops (HQ Von Kuchler)

Belgium (Liege) = 2 Armies, 3 Corps, 1 Tank, 1 Tactical, 1 Fighter, 1 Paratroops (HQ Von Bock)

Ardennes = 1 Army, 2 Corps, 3 Tanks, 1 Tactical, 1 Fighter (HQ von Rundstedt)

Luxemburg + Northern Maginot = 2 Armies, 1 Corps, 1 Tactical, 1 Fighter

Total:

Armies = 7
Corps = 10
Tanks = 5
Fighters = 4
Tactical Bombers = 3
Medium Bombers = 1
Paratroops = 2

Immediate steps are taken to build 18th Army and 21st Panzer, both with the latest technology in Advanced Weapons and Tanks with most of my Plunder and MPPs, leaving me 74 MPPs to spend this turn.




However, I will not spend those to refit those units just yet. Instead, I immediately start to move them westward via Forced March to their destination, as time is of the essence. Forced March doubles my Range for free, but can significantly decrease the Readiness and Morale of my troops. I do not expect any offensive from the West soon, so I take this rather safe gamble. They will have more than the time needed to rest while they are refitting.

The alternative would be to use Operate, which allows me to strategically redeploy a unit anywhere in my territory for a significant amount of MPPs.

Until my Garrison arrives next turn, I keep the Slovakian Corps behind in Gorlice, with 10 hexes of Warsaw.



Meanwhile, I refit all my troops on the Siegfried line to match the French refitting their own Maginot Line. I also redirect my u-boats and raiders on other lines or elsewhere, aiming to confuse the inevitable British.

Italy-wise, moving my troops south continues. I also spend 125 MPPs on 'Improved Warfare' research, which improves the Morale of all my Infantry and Cavalry units except Partisans by 10% per level. We hope to make our Italian troops more prepared and adapted to fighting the British when we restore our Empire.

'Improved Warfare' being a Doctrine, it is a passive bonus to all units of a given type. Other research results might require to invest MPPs in upgrading individual units.



Finally, I got this possibility to offer the Bolsheviks in USSR that we exclude Lithuania from our Sphere of Influence, in exchange of the Soviets drawing back the border from the Vistula-San River to the San-Bug river. This would draw the line away from Warsaw (it is currently right beside it) to the the Bug River.

However, I value Lithuania more than a few pieces of empty land that will become ours anyway when we settle our scores with Russia... and so I say No, fully intending to annex Lithuania and piss the Russian just a little bit under their nose. 

[grumbler]

These seem to be decently written options, so clearly "deads" Tamas was not involved in writing them. 

[Drakken]

Allies Turn 3: Chamberlain to Daladier: Let's make war on Germany... by pissing off Russia and the US at the same time

Nothing much of note on the battlefield from the Allies, the most noteworthy event being that the Royal Navy has sent raiders of their own minelaying against our iron ore shippings from Norway. This will have to dealt with in due time... say April 1940.



Our moves in the Atlantic have paid off: None of my raiders have encountered any enemy ship on anti-submarine duty this turn. We are keeping on winning the Tonnageschlacht, and the more experienced my u-boats and raiders become, the higher the toll on the Allies.





If the reports from Abwehr are exact, Britain has got around a measily 20 MPPs from their convoy lines this turn! At this rate, we are soon to strangle the United Kingdom into submission. 



This pressure from the tonnage losses of British shipping is getting heavy on British public opinion. To relieve the tension, London has decided to go against its own treaties with its former possession, the Irish Free State. Someone (most probably Churchill) has ordered the ports of Cork and Waterford to be seized at once for resupplying the convoy escorts, despite Irish neutrality and prior agreements made with the Irish touching the Treaty Ports. And we all know how Churchill loves the Irish Free State and Eamon de Valera.





Taoiseach Eamon de Valera has made a vibrant protest of this breach of Irish neutrality, which was picked on by the Ambassador of the United States - and Irish himself - Joseph Kennedy. This has angered public opinion in America, many of them coming from the Old Country and who are naturally sympathetic to the Irish cause.






Meanwhile, the French government has decided to strike against the Bolshevik fifth column by outright banning the Communist Party and arresting thousands of known sympathizers, ideologues, sycophants, and all agents of the Comintern in France, to the outrage of the Soviets. This will distance Russia even more from the Western Powers, who are already incensed from the recent Russian cooperation on the Polish question.